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pour Vincennes !
Jun 01 1978 Le rêve d’Aristote
Oct 22 1978 TRANSFERT À SAINT DENIS ?; LACAN POUR VINCENNES !
Nov 01 1978 Séminaire XXVI: La topologie et le temps, Leçon 1
The French text is from Pas‐tout Lacan The English translation is from Culture/Clinic 1;
Applied Lacanian Psychoanalysis, University of
Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2013. Edited by
Jacques‐Alain Miller and Maire Jaanus.
Translated by Adrian Price with Russell Grigg.
Ornicar ?, n°17/18,1979, pp. 278 This essay was originally published in Ornicar ?
17/18 (1979): 278.
TRANSFERT À SAINT DENIS ? Transfer to Saint Denis?
JOURNAL d’Ornicar ?
LACAN pour Vincennes ! Lacan is for Vincennes!
Il y a quatre discours. Chacun se prend pour la There are four discourses. Each one thinks it is the
vérité. Seul le discours analytique fait exception. Il truth. The only exception is the analytic discourse.
vaudrait mieux qu’il domine en conclura‐t‐on, mais We would be better off if it did dominate, people
justement ce discours exclu[t*] la domination, will conclude, but in point of fact this discourse
autrement dit il n’enseigne rien. Il n’a rien excludes domination; in other words it teaches
d’universel : c’est bien en quoi il n’est pas matière nothing. There is nothing universal about it, which
d’enseignement. is precisely why it cannot be taught.
* In the first paragraph "exclu" should have a "t" on the
end
Comment faire pour enseigner ce qui ne How does one go about teaching what cannot be
s’enseigne pas ? Voilà ce dans quoi Freud a taught? This is something Freud ventured into. He
cheminé. Il a considéré que rien n’est que rêve, et thought that all is but a dream and that everyone
que tout le monde (si l’on peut dire une pareille (if one can say such a thing), that everyone is mad,
expression), tout le monde est fou c’est‐à‐dire that is, delusional.
délirant.
C’est bien ce qui se démontre au premier pas vers This indeed what the very first step in the direction
l’enseignement. of teaching demonstrates.
Mais reste à le démontrer : pour cela n’importe But it does still need to be demonstrated: for this
quel objet est bon, il se présente toujours mal. any old object will do, it always presents itself
C’est‐à‐dire qu’il faut le corriger. poorly. That is, it needs to be rectified.
Les mathématiques servent à cela : corriger l’objet. Mathematics is for that: rectifying the object. It is
C’est un fait que les mathématiques corrigent et a fact that mathematics rectifies and that what it
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Lacan pour Vincennes !
que ce qu’elles corrigent est l’objet même. rectifies is the object itself.
D’où ma réduction de la psychanalyse à la théorie Hence my reduction of psychoanalysis to set
des ensembles theory.
L’antipathie des discours, l’universitaire et Might the antipathy between the university and
l’analytique, serait‐elle, à Vincennes, surmontée ? analytic discourses be overcome at Vincennes?
Certainement pas. Elle y est exploitée, au moins Certainly not. It is being put to work* there; at
depuis quatre ans, où j’y veille. Qu’à se confronter least it has been for the four years I have been
à son impossible l’enseignement se renouvelle, se observing. It is apparent* there that, by coming up
constate. against its own impossibility, teaching is refreshed.
* Elle y est exploitée. "It has been put to work" is
possible, but given Lacan's interest in the capitalist
discourse at this stage of his teaching, I would have
preferred "It has been taken advantage of"
*Qu’à se confronter à son impossible l’enseignement se
renouvelle, se constate ‐ "it is apparent that..." is a bit
weak for "se constate", and changing Lacan's word
order further weakens the statement. I would have
chosen: "That by confronting its impossibility, teaching
is refreshed is to state the obvious."
J’énumère ce que quatre années ont fait surgir au Let me set out what these four years have
Département de Psychanalyse : produced in the Department of Psychoanalysis:
– une revue, Ornicar ?, qui tranche sur ce qui se ‐A journal Ornicar ?, that debates what is being
publie partout sous l’enseigne de la psychanalyse ; published everywhere in the name of
psychoanalysis
‐un « troisième cycle », dit du Champ freudien, où ‐A postgraduate program* in the so‐called
c’est à la psychanalyse de corriger ce qu’on lui Freudian Field, in what it behooves psychoanalysis
propose comme affine* ; to rectify what is offered it is as cognate
* un"troisième cycle" ‐‐ "a doctoral program" ... and
why leave out the scare quotes?
* affine "cognate" is appropriate in the context of
language, but in mathematics "affine" would be more
accurate, even if it sends the reader to the dictionary!
‐une Section clinique, qui à l’Hôpital Henri‐ ‐A Clinical Section, which at the Henri‐Rousselle
Rousselle joue son rôle, d’orienter les jeunes Hospital, is fulfilling its role of instructing young
psychiatres. psychiatrists
Bilan : positif. L’expérience se poursuivra donc. À A positive report. The experiment will therefore
Vincennes, tant que la liberté lui en sera laissée. Si continue. At Vincennes, so long as it has the
on l’y réduit, hors de l’Université. freedom to do so. If ever it gets restricted, then
out of the university!
Jacques Lacan Jacques Lacan
Ce 22‐X‐78 This 22‐10‐78
En fait, j’espère qu’Edgar Faure fera ce qu’il faut As a matter of fact, I hope Edgar Faure* will do
pour que, Vincennes, soit Paris VIII, sa création, what it takes for Vincennes, that is, Paris VIII, his
subsiste. creation, to maintain.
*Edgar Faure (1908–1988) was a French politician,
essayist, historian, and memoirist. “In December 1968,
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Lacan pour Vincennes !
after Edgar Faure’s reform of French universities, the
experimental university at Vincennes (Paris‐VIII) was
founded, Barthes, Canguilhem, Derrida, and Foucault
were all part of the orientation commission of this new
university and thus were included among the marginal
academics who participated directly in the
restructuration of the university field”—The Making of
an Avant‐Garde: Tel‐Quel by Niilo Kauppi. Among the
many books Faure wrote are: Philosophie d'une
réforme, Plon, 1969; Pour un nouveau contrat social,
Seuil, 1973; Au‐delà du dialogue avec Philippe Sollers,
Balland, 1977; La banqueroute de Law, Gallimard, 1977;
La philosophie de Karl Popper et la société politique
d'ouverture, Firmin Didot, 1981
J. L. J.L.
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